John Landes #2 In Linen; the weaving

So I managed to somehow thread 467 ends on 6 shafts with no threading errors and only one broken warp! Can I get an Amen?! 

Once I wove an inch or two, I realized that I was in for a challenge. The linen was sooooo stiff!!! I made an impromptu bobbin humidor with an air tight container and a jar of warm water. I left the pre-wound bobbins in the container overnight and in the morning the linen was much more workable. I also misted the warp with water as I was weaving. 

My 1st sample used blue wool as pattern weft. I wanted to be able to throw the finished pieces into the washer & dryer, so I switched to a dark purple 5/2 cotton for the pattern weft and a lilac colored 16/2 linen for the tabby weft. The color combination of the natural colored warp with the dark & light purple weft is very interesting. On the "winter" side of the fabric, the mixing of the lilac & natural threads is very subtle, while on the "summer" side it seems much bolder. I'm so enthralled by summer and winter, especially now that I have the eight shaft loom. I may be wrong, but to me, the definition of the weave is more complex with more blocks. 

The last piece was woven all in linen with the Bockens 16/2 warp yarn used as tabby weft and  Euroflax by Louet in navy blue as pattern weft. For the 1st piece, I followed the draft exactly as written. Because of the difference in the epi and ppi the piece and the motifs are rectangular. For the second piece, I tried to square the design a bit by eliminating an entire star motif at the beginning and end and also reducing the number of picks in the center motif. The fabric itself is still a bit rectangular but the motifs are more balanced. 

My warp was WAY too short. I was lucky to get two pieces out of it. 

I'll share some pictures of the finished two pieces soon. For now, here is what I'm weaving at present.....

...4 shaft overshot converted to 6 shaft (3 color) summer & winter. I can't wait to share the finished product!!!!

Happy Weaving!!!!! 

Weaving With Linen

Cotton, wool, bamboo, even the dreaded acrylic from time to time. It seems I've worked with just about every fiber except linen. I've seen flax grown, harvested, broken, combed & spun. I have just never used it. Not looking to make a huge investment, I bought 3 8 oz spools of 8/2 linen. I know that this is mainly used for tapestry weaving, so we'll see what happens. 

While warping the 1st thing I noticed is that the thread has zero give. None. I asked about linen at the yarn store and the only advice I got is that you need to have perfect tension when weaving with it. Threading was a breeze. I hate threading heddles. Hate it!!! Threading with the stiff linen made it easier to see which thread was next and easier to get through the heddles. 

I wound the warp carefully and tried to tie on as evenly as possible. I am using an overshot pattern called Periwinkle . Here is the draft.....

After weaving one repeat of the pattern I noticed a threading error. I cut the incorrect threads and re-threaded and re-sleyed them. I tied a knot in the warp threads and secured them to the weaving with a T pin. It worked!

The repair is at the lower right side of the fabric. For this 1st sample, I used 3/2 pearle cotton in black for the pattern weft. 

For my 2nd sample, I messed with the treadling a bit and used Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport in a blue as pattern weft.....

The next sample is the same treadling as the wool but with twine as pattern weft. 

Finally I used hemp as patern weft and changed the tie up to weave in Monk's Belt.....

Now, the wet finishing. Since I've never worked with linen before I was at a loss as to how to finish it. I saw a few things online that mentioned cold mangling. When I asked at the yarn store, they said they'd never even heard of that before. I decided to cut off a small piece of weaving (where I had made my repair in the beginning of the warp) and then I threw it into the washer and then the dryer. The transformation was amazing!

The design became more defined and both the linen & cotton softened considerably. 

Though initially scared of working with linen, now I can't wait to use it again :)

Happy Weaving!